Convertible sofa-bed furniture

ABSTRACT

This sofa-bed convertible furniture comprises a fixed wooden main frame supported by four legs at its corners, a back comprising a relatively thick padded lower portion for improving the user&#39;&#39;s comfort at the small of the back, and a four-section, easy-open mechanism adapted to nest completely within the contour of said frame. The mechanism is so arranged that no interference with said thick padded lower portion of the back rest is produced when opening and re-closing the mechanism. The sections of this mechanism are a head-rest section, an intermediate section, a main section and a foot-rest section, and their relative arrangement is such that the general depth of the furniture is reduced appreciably as well as the over-all dimensions of the furniture itself.

United States Patent I191 Metayer [45] Sept. 9, 1975 l CONVERTIBLE SOFA-BED FURNITURE 2|1 Appl No; 473,699

{30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 28, 1974 France 73.35554 [52] US, Cl 7. 5/36; 5/[3 [5 I] Int. Cl. i i i i i t t i v A47C 17/14 [58] Field of Search 5/13, 16, 2834, 5/36 [56l References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3585,6158 6/l97l Spitz .t 5/13 3 7lll 4(l2 l/l973 Eakinsm 5/l3 1740.775 6/1973 Mctuycr... 5/13 IXUJ'IU o/l974 Janko a a 4 v a i a t 5H3 Primary EmmmvrCasmir A. Nunberg Almrm A u'nl, or F1'rmUlle C, Linton 57] ABSTRACT This sotabed convertible furniture comprises a fixed wooden main frame supported by four legs at its cor ners, a back comprising a relatively thick padded lower portion for improving the user's comfort at the small of the back. and a four-section, easy-open mechanism adapted to nest completely within the contour of said frame. The mechanism is so arranged that no interference with said thick padded lower portion of the back rest is produced when opening and re-closing the mechanism The sections of this mechanism are a head-rest section, an intermediate section, a main section and a foot-rest section and their relative arrangement is such that the general depth of the furniture is reduced appreciably as well as the over-all dimensions of the furniture itself.

6 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEDSEP 9191s SHEET l, [1F 5 mm mm mum PATENTED SEP 1975 sum 5 or 5 CONVERTIBLE SOFA-BED FURNITURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates in general to convertible sofabed furnitures and is directed to an improved furniture of this character consisting essentially of a seat or sofa convertible into a bed by opening out, outside the fur niture hardwood frame or structure, successive mechanical component elements constituting the bed spring structure or frame supporting the mattress.

Furnitures convertible from seat or sofa to bed are well known nowadays. A popular proposition in this field comprises a first section or element, ie the headrest section, of the mattress-supporting frame which extends substantially vertically behind the padded elements of the seat back. With this arrangement, in addition to the inconvenience of entailing a relatively great depth of the furniture, the head-rest section must compulsorily describe at least during the initial part of the sofa opening movement to the bed position an unfolding movement which is generally awkward due to the presence ofa particularly heavily padded portion for supporting the users small of the back at the base of the furniture back.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the essential object of the present invention to avoid the inconveniences set forth hereinabove by providing a mechanism for a sofa bed convertible furniture wherein the mattress supporting frame structure elements and more particularly the head-rest section are caused during the opening thereof to perform a move ment such that it will not interfere with the lower portion of the back rest of the furniture which can thus be padded to a substantial extent for supporting and providing comfort to the small of the back of the users, while reducing the total depth and therefore the overall dimensions of the furniture in the bed position while preserving the original and necessary bed length. Moreover, the unfolding or opening mechanism according to this invention has in the folded or sofa position a substantially parallelipipedic configuration whereby it can easily be incorporated in any type of furniture such as caravan upholstered benches, storage units, boats, tables etc.

The mechanism according to this invention comprises an assembly of four successive and hingedly in terconnected mattress-supporting sections, i.e., from back to front, a head-rest section, a main section, an intermediate section and a foot-rest section, respectively, said head-rest section being adapted, in the folded condition of the furniture, to fit horizontally between said main section and said footrest section, and being operatively connected to the foot-rest section of the furniture by means of linkage members controlling automatically the backward pivotal movement of the head-rest section until this section extends horizontally and in substantially coplanar relationship to said main section when the foot-rest section is pulled forwards to its horizontal unfolded or bed position.

According to a preferred form of embodiment of this invention, the linkage controlling the movement of the head-rest section of the mattress supporting frame structure comprises a link pivoted at one end to the intermediate section of this frame structure and provided at the opposite end with a transverse stud slidably engaging an elongated aperture or slot formed laterally in said main section, said link being pivoted above its transverse stud to one end of a linkage having its opposite end adapted to coact with a tilting lever fulcrumed intermediate its ends to said main section and at its end to said head-rest section, whereby the unfolding movement of said foot-rest section, which causes said intermediate section to pivot in the forward direction, is attended by the movement of said transverse stud of said link in an elongated aperture or slot formed in said main section while causing said linkage to move forward and thus control through the rotation of said tilting lever the pivotal movement of said head-rest section to its unfolded or bed position. Advantageously, to permit the actuation of said head-rest section, i.e., effecting the initial portion ofits unfolding movement before the foot-rest section has completed its forward tilting movement to its vertical position in coplanar relationship with said intermediate section, the foot-rest section is connected to said intermediate section via a pivoted link carrying at one end a transverse-stud adapted during the movement of said rest section to travel in a S-shaped channel or aperture formed laterally in said intermediate section.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a diagrammatic side elevational view of the convertible sofa-bed of this invention, as seen after the first opening phase during which the various sections of the mattress-supporting frame structure are released in their folded position from their storage space within the solid hardwood frame of the furniture;

FIGS. 2 to 4 inclusive illustrate in side elevational views the successive steps of the furniture opening operation; and

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate the head-rest section and the foot-rest section respectively in their unfolded or bed position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT To facilitate the understanding of the present inven tion, it may be pointed out firstly that the folding frame structure is symmetrical in relation to a vertical median plane of the furniture and that the joints between the movable sections or parts are disposed symmetrically on either side of the structure. Under these conditions, it is deemed sufficient to describe only one side of this structure.

The fixed portion of the mechanism is housed within the furniture hardwood frame structure of conventional cabinet-making appearance, as shown diagrammatically in FIGS. 1 and 5, this structure comprising notably a back I having near its bottom or base a stuffed or padded convex portion 2 for improving the comfort of the user's small of the back. This fixed portion comprises essentially an horizontal rectangular wooden frame 3 supported at its four corners by fixed legs 4. Secured to this wooden frame 3 is a lateral support (not shown in the drawings) to which the lateral linkage of the mechanism is pivoted at two points 5 and 6 (i.e. one at the rear and the other at the front). This linkage comprises an arm 7 pivoted at one end by means of a pivot pin 5 to said lateral support and having its opposite end pivoted by means of another pivot pin 8 to a link 9 and by means of a complementary pivot pin 10 to one end of another link II, as shown. This last-mentioned link II has its opposite end pivoted at 12 intermediate the ends of a pivoted arm 13 having one end pivoted at 6 to said lateral support and the other end pivoted at 14 to a tilting lever 15 having in turn one end 16 pivoted to link 9 pivoted in turn at 17 to the rear end of another section constituting the main section 19 of the mattress supporting structure. A spring 22 has one end anchored to said link 11 and its other end attached to the lateral support (not shown) carried by the wooden frame 3. A bent link 23 pivoted at 24 intermediate its ends to the main section 19 is also pivoted at one end 14 to the pivoting arm 13 and to the tilting lever 15, and at its other end (25) to a link 26 pivoted in turn to the upper portion of a foot-rest section 27 having its upper end 28 pivoted to the front portion of the main section 19 of said mattress-supporting frame structure.

As clearly shown notably in FIGS. 1 and 2 in its folded position the head-rest section 18 of this mattress-supporting frame structure (the mattress being omitted for the sake of clarity) extends horizontally between the main section 19 and foot-rest section 21, and it will readily appear from this structure that the fact of folding the head-rest section 18 within the frame structure of the furniture affords a considerable reduction in the depth of this mechanism which, in its folded condition, constitutes a parallelipipedic assembly perfectly adapted to be fitted in the modern configurations of convertible sofa-beds. The head-rest section 18 has its front end pivoted at 29 to a link 30 pivoted in turn at one end to the rear portion of the main section 19 and its opposite bent end has formed thereon an abutment element 31 adapted, as shown in FIG. 5, to support the head-rest section 18 when the latter is in its fully unfolded or open position. Pivoted at 32 to the head-rest section 18, behind the pivot pin 29, is one end ofa bent link 33 having its other end pivoted at 34 to one end of an arm 35 having its other end pivoted at 36 to the rear end of a link 37. The link 33 is also pivoted intermedi ate its ends to the rear end of main section 19.

The aforesaid link 37 carries behind its pivot pin 36 a transverse stud 38 slidably engaged in an elongated longitudinal slot 39 formed laterally in the main section 19, in the front position thereof. To the front end of said main section 19 is also pivoted at 28 the rear end of the intermediate section 20 of the frame structure, this intermediate section 20 having pivoted thereto at 40 the foot-rest section 21 of the folding frame structure. To the front portion of said intermediate section 20 is pivoted at 41 the front end of link 37 having its central portion pivoted at 42 to a link 43 pivoted at 44 to the median portion of a leg 45 pivoted in turn at its upper end 46 to said foot-rest section 21. Near the rear end of foot-rest section 21 one end of a bent link 48 is pivoted at 47, the opposite end of this link 48 carrying a transverse stud 49 adapted to slide in a S-shaped slot 50 formed laterally in said intermediate section 20.

In operation, when unfolding the mechanism from the seat or sofa position to the bed position, in a first time (the mechanism being initially in its fully folded position and stored inside the wooden frame structure of the furniture, a position not shown in the drawings) pulling the vertically disposed intermediate section 20 in the forward direction will carry along the main section 19 and consequently the pivot pin 14, whereby the arm 13 will carry along the lever 15 and be pulled upwards, thus lifting the main section 19 and causing this section 19 to assume the horizontal position illustrated in FIG. 1, so that it will bear on the leg 27 which, during this outward movement, was released as a consequence of the action of links 23 and 26. In this arrangement, the head-rest section 18 is held in its folded condition between the main section 19 of the mattress-supporting structure and the foot-rest section 21. Then (see FIG. 2) the leg 45 of section 21 is pulled forwards, thus causing the forward pivotal movement of this section 21 about its pivot pins 40 and the movement of the cross stud 49 carried by link 48 along the first section of the above-mentioned S-shaped slot 50. Continuing the pulling of said leg 45 and foot-rest section 21 (FIG. 3) will cause the stud 49 to engage the end of said slot 50, and at the same time the forward pivotal movement of the intermediate section 20 about its pivot pin 28 will begin. This pivotal movement of intermediate section 20 causes the link 37 to be pulled forwards and is attended by the movement of transverse stud 38 in its companion slot 39, so that a thrust is exerted against the front end of head-rest section 18 through links 35 and 33, whereby this section 18 will pivot about its pivot pin 29.

As illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 6, the movement is continued until the stud 38 abutes the bottom of slot 39 (approximately the position of FIG. 4) whereafter the leg 45 of foot-rest section 21 will bear on the floor and cause the link 37 to pivot about said stud 38, thus exerting an additional traction on link 35 to complete the unfolding movement of head-rest section 18 (position shown in FIG. 5) which will thus become horizontal and substantially co-planar with respect to the frame sections 19, 20 and 21, by engaging the abutment elements 31 of link 30. It will be seen that in the unfolded or open bed position of FIGS. 5 and 6 the head-rest section 1 overlies the convex portion 2 adjacent the base of back 1, whereby, while preserving the same bed length, the over-all dimensions of the furniture in the bed position can be reduced appreciably. Moreover, during the first period of the mechanism opening movement, said head-rest section 18, by remaining folded within the other three sections of the mattresssupporting frame structure, permits of adding a relative thick padded or upholstered bottom portion 2 of said back 1, a feature not obtainable with existing mecha nisms in which the head-rest or equivalent section is unfolded immediately as the opening movement begins, so as to bear against the padded lower portion of the back.

The detailed description of the folding movement of the furniture mechanism is not necessary for a proper understanding of this invention, since this movement is obtained by reversing the sequence of steps described hereinabove in connection with the furniture mechanism opening or unfolding movement. It is only necessary to mention that the assembly comprising the footrest section 21 and intermediate section 20 are firstly lifted and moved backwards, thus causing the head-rest section 18 to be folded up, whereafter pushing the footrest section 21 and the leg 45 associated therewith will cause the mechanism to assume the position shown in FIG. 1 before the thrust applied in the backward direction to the intermediate section 20 causes the leg 27 to be folded up in turn while re-inserting the complete mechanism into the contour of the hardwood frame 3 of the furniture.

It will readily occur to those conversant with the art that the exemplary form of embodiment of the invention described hereinabove and illustrated in the accompanying drawings should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention, since various component elements of the structure may be replaced by other equivalent means without departing from the basic principles of the invention as set forth in the attached claims. Moreover, it will be seen that various Figures of the drawings have been simplified on purpose by omitting certain component elements shown in other Figures.

What is claimed is:

l. A bed base for a piece of furniture adapted to be converted from a seat into a bed comprising a fixed frame, a main element, lever means pivotally connecting said main element to said frame and movable between a folded position in which said main element is inserted in said frame and an unfolded position in which said main element is moved from said frame to a horizontal position, a leg pivotally connected to said main element and capable of supporting said main element in its horizontal position, an intermediate element pivotally connected at its back end to said main element, a leg element pivotally connected at its back end to said intermediate element and movable between a folded position in which it is parallel to said main element and an unfolded position in which said leg element is in prolongation of said main and intermediate elements, a second leg pivotally connected to said leg element capable of supporting said leg element in its prolonged position, a head element pivotally connected to the back end of said main element and when in its unfolded position being housed between said folded leg element and said main element and linkage means connecting said head element, main element, intermediate element and leg element and capable of automatically causing said head element to move from its folded position to an unfolded position in prolongation of said main element when said leg element is moved from its folded position to its unfolded position.

2. A bed base as claimed in claim 1 wherein said linkage means is pivotally connected to said second leg whereby unfolding of said second leg will unfold said head element.

3. A bed base as claimed in claim 1 wherein said linkage means includes a link pivoted at one end to said intermediate section, a transverse stud on the opposite end of said link, said main section has an elongated lateral operature with said stud slideable therein, a rod pivotally connected to said link between the ends of said link, and a tilting lever pivotally connected to said main element, said rod and said head element adjacent the pivotal connection of said head element to said main element.

4. A bed frame as claimed in claim 3 including a second link pivotally connected to said head element and the back end of said main element and a stop provided on said second link adjacent said head element and capable of supporting said head element in its unfolded position.

5. A bed frame as claimed in claim 4 including a connecting link pivotally connected to said leg element ad jacent the pivoted connection of said leg element to said intermediate element, said intermediate element has an S-shaped lateral aperture and a transverse stud is provided on said connecting link and slideably positioned in said S-shaped lateral aperture,

6. A bed frame as claimed in claim 5 including a pivoted link pivotally connected to said lever means and said first leg and capable of automatically moving said first leg to its main element supporting position on the unfolding of said bed frame. 

1. A bed base for a piece of furniture adapted to be converted from a seat into a bed comprising a fixed frame, a main element, lever means pivotally connecting said main element to said frame and movable between a folded position in which said main element is inserted in said frame and an unfolded position in which said main element is moved from said frame to a horizontal position, a leg pivotally connected to said main element and capable of supportinG said main element in its horizontal position, an intermediate element pivotally connected at its back end to said main element, a leg element pivotally connected at its back end to said intermediate element and movable between a folded position in which it is parallel to said main element and an unfolded position in which said leg element is in prolongation of said main and intermediate elements, a second leg pivotally connected to said leg element capable of supporting said leg element in its prolonged position, a head element pivotally connected to the back end of said main element and when in its unfolded position being housed between said folded leg element and said main element and linkage means connecting said head element, main element, intermediate element and leg element and capable of automatically causing said head element to move from its folded position to an unfolded position in prolongation of said main element when said leg element is moved from its folded position to its unfolded position.
 2. A bed base as claimed in claim 1 wherein said linkage means is pivotally connected to said second leg whereby unfolding of said second leg will unfold said head element.
 3. A bed base as claimed in claim 1 wherein said linkage means includes a link pivoted at one end to said intermediate section, a transverse stud on the opposite end of said link, said main section has an elongated lateral operature with said stud slideable therein, a rod pivotally connected to said link between the ends of said link, and a tilting lever pivotally connected to said main element, said rod and said head element adjacent the pivotal connection of said head element to said main element.
 4. A bed frame as claimed in claim 3 including a second link pivotally connected to said head element and the back end of said main element and a stop provided on said second link adjacent said head element and capable of supporting said head element in its unfolded position.
 5. A bed frame as claimed in claim 4 including a connecting link pivotally connected to said leg element adjacent the pivoted connection of said leg element to said intermediate element, said intermediate element has an S-shaped lateral aperture and a transverse stud is provided on said connecting link and slideably positioned in said S-shaped lateral aperture.
 6. A bed frame as claimed in claim 5 including a pivoted link pivotally connected to said lever means and said first leg and capable of automatically moving said first leg to its main element supporting position on the unfolding of said bed frame. 